Today I had my usual teensy cup of coffee before I went running. Since even that teensy amount dehydrates me a bit and it's warming up, I decided to have a bit of chocolate soy milk for breakfast too. I know that soy milk (and soy products) has a lot of junk that can cause breast cancer, but I'm risking it while I'm over here because they don't really have almond milk products - just soy. So I'll just have to make it through another 6 weeks using it! When I go home, I might start experimenting with regular 1% chocolate milk again but while I'm over here I'm not messing around too much with what my body does and does not like.
After getting in my run (the weather was so nice that it was one of those smile-the-whole-way kind of runs) and doing some homework and research for this weekend (we are going to the Med! Marseille/Provence. One week on the slopes of the Swiss Alps, the next on the beaches of the Mediterranean. Is my life real???), I carved up that mango and had a refreshing snack!
I put on a sundress - yes it was over 60 degrees today AND sunny! - and made my way to the city's center to procure a blazer that I'd seen in H&M. It was a cropped mini-blazer and I'd tried it on and thought it would look great with dresses or a skirt OR jeans and I thought that I could wear it to work. It only came in black, which was fine because it meant it would go with anything. I didn't purchase it when I first saw it because I was trying to conserve money...but today I still wanted it so I struck out to get it. The only question was: would they still have my size (34 European)?
I went straight to the rack where I'd found it and saw that they had many left... I thumbed through and found 40, 36, 36, 36, 44. None of those would do! I tried a 36 anyways and it was just too big. I didn't want to spend the money on something that wouldn't look right. I headed over and looked around some more, and found a second, similar blazer that I liked a lot too. But it wasn't the blazer.
That's when I saw it. Another blazer - the one I wanted - on a mannequin! I walked over and reached up, and pulled out the tag when no one was looking. There it was. The mannequin had stolen my 34!
I searched and searched for a salesperson and finally found one. I asked - in French - if she could take the jacket off the mannequin and sell it to me. I wasn't really sure why, but the answer was (twice) a firm no.
This is unusual for me, but I still wasn't satisfied. They had the blazer. They must want to make a sale. I wanted to buy. Maybe because things don't usually fit me so well and this seemed to really work (European sizes really seem to understand my proportions!). Maybe it was because I'd trekked back out there. So, I went to the register and asked the ladies there. This time I asked in English, to be sure we were all clear with each other. This time I was successful! They called someone to dismantle the mannequin for me. He was very nice and we had a nice little conversation in French while he removed the mannequin's arms. So, in the end, I got it!!!
The much sought-after blazer.
In the end, I'm really glad I did that. Not only does it seem that much more worth it to have finally gotten the jacket (and spent the money), but that was exactly the confidence-boosting, rewarding kind of experience that I hope to gain many of while here. It may not seem like such a big deal, but for me, shopping alone and then having all of those exchanges with the salespeople in French (even when rejected by the first girl!) was something that is more challenging here than if I'd been in the US speaking English. I've talked to Alex about this kind of thing...this trip really is forming us into little adults (or maybe we're big adults?) and teaching us all sorts of independence that we need to be successful and functional in this world. That's one of the many wonderful things our time here is doing for us :)
That blazer is really cute!
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